Of Mice and Men – Curley’s Wife
Both men glanced up, for the rectangle of sunshine in the doorway was cut off. A
girl was standing there looking in. She had full, rouged lips and wide-spaced eyes,
heavily made up. Her fingernails were red. Her hair hung in little rolled clusters, like
sausages. She wore a cotton house dress and red mules, on the instep of which
were little bouquets of red ostrich feathers, ‘I’m lookin’ for Curley,’ she said. Her
voice had a nasal, brittle quality.
George looked away from her and then back. ‘He was in here a minute ago, but he
went.’
‘Oh!’ She put her hands behind her back and leaned against the door frame so that
her body was thrown forward. ‘You’re the new fellas that just come in ain’t ya?’
‘Yeah.’
Lennie’s eyes moved down over her body, and though she did not seem to be looking
at Lennie, she bridled a little. She looked at her fingernails. ‘Sometimes Curley’s in
here,’ she explained.
George said brusquely, ‘Well, he ain’t now.’
‘If he ain’t, I guess I better look some place else,’ she said playfully.
Lennie watched her, fascinated. George
Said ‘If I see him, I’ll pass the word you was looking for him.’
She smiled archly and twisted her body. ‘Nobody can’t blame a person for lookin,’
she said. There were footsteps behind her, going by. She turned her head. ‘Hi, Slim,’
she said.
Slim’s voice came through the door, ‘Hi good-lookin’.
‘I’m tryin’ to find Curley, Slim.’
‘Well you ain’t tryin’ very hard. I seen him goin’ in your house.
She was suddenly apprehensive. ‘Bye, boys’ she called into the bunk-house, and she
hurried away.
George looked round at Lennie. ‘Jesus, what a tramp,’ he said. ‘So that’s what
Curley picks for a wife.’
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